Re-trained racing stars to parade at Newmarket
Retired racehorses in new careers, including Melbourne cup runner-up Purple Moon, will parade at Newmarket today (10 October).
Purple Moon (pictured) ran 23 times on the Flat, winning over £1.1m in prize money, and has had considerable success in showing since he started his retraining in 2012.
Last year he was champion at the Fenland show and won the RoR final at Hickstead with Chantal Wootten.
He will join the 10-horse lineup at the Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) parade, which will take place on the second day of the inaugural Dubai future champions festival.
“So many of the success stories of former racehorses achieving new heights in different disciplines are horses who only raced on the Flat and so it is fitting that there should be a RoR parade at Newmarket, the home of Flat racing,” said Di Arbuthnot, chief executive of RoR.
“The line-up of the Newmarket parade highlights one of the great strengths of RoR in that alongside wonderfully talented racehorses such as African Story and Prince Bishop, we have horses of considerably less ability on the racetrack, but who have gone on to find their niche in their second career, whether it be dressage or playing horseball at international level.”
Ascot gold cup winner Papineau and Dubai world cup winners African Story and Prince Bishop and will also feature in the parade, as well as Quadrille, owned by The Queen, who is now doing dressage.
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“We are particularly grateful to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for his support, through Godolphin, in enabling the parade to take place,” said Ms Arbuthnot.
“Aside from the Dubai world cup winners, who are currently being retrained, evidence of the success of the Godolphin and Darley rehoming and retraining programme can be seen in the likes of City Style and Gulf Of Naples, both of whom are thriving in their new activities and giving their owners a great deal of pleasure.”
RoR introduced the parades in 2008 and they are now an established part of the major racing festivals at Cheltenham and Aintree.
This is the first time that Newmarket racecourse has hosted a RoR parade on the Rowley Mile.
The parade will take place at 1pm in the parade ring, immediately before the first race.
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Rachael joined Horse & Hound in 2014, initially as a digital sub editor then became part of the news team as a writer in 2015. The philosophy graduate studied journalism at the Press Association before working as a local reporter at the Brentwood Gazette. Rachael is now a mum of two and still loves all things equestrian, including hacking, dressage and jumping with her cob Bert. Rachael left the H&H staff to go freelance in June 2019, but still contributes to our magazine and website, as well as our sister magazine Country Life, among others.